Yes, more monitoring in the houses with moisture problems. I agree. This
should be done. How to find them?

<snip>
Unfortunately, I think that homeowners with moisture-related failures
aren't likely to be voluntarily forthcoming in droves simply because they
are going to be reluctant to risk labelling the largest financial
investment of their lives as being a potentially unsaleable health hazard.
Another problem is that homeowners don't generally appreciate having
strangers poking around their homes looking for faults. It's a bit like
some people and their ages; they'd rather not acknowledge for certain what
they already know in the back of their minds.
I think that what would need to be done is for the researcher to compile
an inventory of SBH and then go out and have a look at all of them or
somehow get photos of them.
The ones that are most likely to have experienced moisture problems won't
be hard to identify since they will exhibit obvious detailing weaknesses.
Of those, it wouldn't be difficult to identify the ones with advanced
moisture problems because they will likely have tell-tale signs at the
surface indicating problems within.
Or the high-tech route, if the researcher is in an academic or
institutional situation, there may be access to the thermographic
equipment and expertise that enables non-destructive means of determining
the presence and amounts of moisture within building assemblies.
At that point, it will be up to the homeowner to decide whether or not
they are willing to proceed with further investigation/remediation.
As for ensuring the veracity of responses to a POLL format for gathering
data, it would be a relatively simply matter for the researcher to contact
the poll respondents and request the necessary verification info.. First
you make it easy for potential victims to respond and once you've got
them, the rest is easy. Isn't that the way it works ?
=== * ===
On an unrelated note, the members of this List seem to have a habit of not
taking a moment to <snip> the messages to which they are responding, the
result being that the DIGEST verson that one receives will often contain a
bazillion complete re-iterations of messages, and if the Original
Postpersons are windbags like me, that's not a Good Thing so please
y'all, <SNIP> before responding.
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<ArchiLogic at chaffyahoo dot ca>
(winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply)
Please visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mercycorps.org/&quot;>http://www.mercycorps.org/</a>